Has anyone tried to pay help by the lawn? I base my pricing on square footage with a minimum of 10k being the minimum. Seems to me it would get the crw on the ball about getting the job done on or under the time alloted, but would I be risking quality? I was think $5 for a helper and $7 for the driver. Thanks

Metro Lawn

10-18-2004, 05:00 PM

We have done this for years with good results. The only thing you need to watch is the quality. We generally have a salaried foreman that checks up on the guys and they do a decent job. It gives them a feeling that they are making more money too. Figure 3 jobs an hour.. that's $21.00 for the driver and $15.00 for the helper... not a bad selling point.

Ability

10-18-2004, 05:11 PM

I train new employees this way because they are often very slow. When they get up to speed I start paying them by the hour and they make much more.

leadarrows

10-18-2004, 05:27 PM

Well not yards as of yet but that is how I pay for scraping drywall out of new construction houses. Works out real well for them and me. The harder they work the sooner there done. Sometimes it means as much as $65.00 in their pockets four four hours work. Sometimes they goof off some and don't do so well but thats on them this way not me. I don't get quality work unless I'm there any way I do it so ..... if you got the answer to that one I'm all ears.

grassrootsinab

10-18-2004, 05:33 PM

When I started I worked for a guy and he paid me $8 per lawn (very small residential, he was charging 18-25) with a 21". The wage worked out better than $12 a hr which for a summer job in a university town 12 years ago wasn't too bad.

I posted a thread on this a while back and some guys were saying it was illegal to pay this way (labour code or something). I never did get a definitive answer. As an employeee I sure liked it cause I could make better money and as an employer I would like to (now paying a HS student $7.50/hr to help) I think it would motivate them a little more. Just my .02

leadarrows

10-18-2004, 05:40 PM

In QuickBooks I just set up hourly and by the job. It still goes thu payroll and taxes still get paid either way so thats not a problem. It's paying them as a subcontractor and not with holding taxes that is a problem.

Tobruk79

10-18-2004, 11:05 PM

could you (legally) pay them minimum wage hourly plus a smaller comission per yard?

mtdman

10-19-2004, 12:33 AM

could you (legally) pay them minimum wage hourly plus a smaller comission per yard?

I kinda like that idea. That way, you meet the min wage laws and still motivate them to work faster.

Good idear.

:D

J.Gordon

10-19-2004, 02:21 PM

could you (legally) pay them minimum wage hourly plus a smaller comission per yard?

Very good idea! thanks!!!
Jeff

rodfather

10-19-2004, 02:27 PM

My very first employee was given a truck, trailer, all the equipment he needed and paid a % of each job.

JustMowIt

10-19-2004, 02:39 PM

Has anyone tried to pay help by the lawn? I base my pricing on square footage with a minimum of 10k being the minimum. Seems to me it would get the crw on the ball about getting the job done on or under the time alloted, but would I be risking quality? I was think $5 for a helper and $7 for the driver. Thanks

We pay our help by the job, and still run a full payroll (no pretending they are subs).

$4.75 driver $2.75 helper $2.75 helper (3 man truck)

In the late & early season, some trucks are two man

$6.25 driver $4.00 helper (2 man truck)

This is absolutely the best way to go, prior to this method, we paid by the week (big mistake). We went from 3 man crew mowing 28 yards, to a 3 man crew mowing 35-38 yards daily. We require the crews to do "re-dos" without pay, and maintain no more than a 1% complaint rate. They are also required to replace sprinkler heads & valve covers at their own cost, and pay 50% of any major damage (broken windows & doors).

Also, we use gross lot size for pricing so we pay the crew 1 time for any lot up to 13K ft., anything from 13-18K ft. we pay 1.5 to the crew.

walker-talker

10-19-2004, 04:29 PM

We pay our help by the job, and still run a full payroll (no pretending they are subs).

$4.75 driver $2.75 helper $2.75 helper (3 man truck)

In the late & early season, some trucks are two man

$6.25 driver $4.00 helper (2 man truck)

This is absolutely the best way to go, prior to this method, we paid by the week (big mistake). We went from 3 man crew mowing 28 yards, to a 3 man crew mowing 35-38 yards daily. We require the crews to do "re-dos" without pay, and maintain no more than a 1% complaint rate. They are also required to replace sprinkler heads & valve covers at their own cost, and pay 50% of any major damage (broken windows & doors).

Also, we use gross lot size for pricing so we pay the crew 1 time for any lot up to 13K ft., anything from 13-18K ft. we pay 1.5 to the crew.Sounds like a very interesting method and maybe one that should be modeled. A couple questions for ya. On the "re-dos"....are they still on the clock for this? Also, how do you determine the wage on the job??? I am assuming it's based on % of income that the lawn bring in.

JustMowIt

10-19-2004, 04:46 PM

Sounds like a very interesting method and maybe one that should be modeled. A couple questions for ya. On the "re-dos"....are they still on the clock for this? Also, how do you determine the wage on the job??? I am assuming it's based on % of income that the lawn bring in.
We pay the same rate for any lawn up to 13K sq. ft., if it is a larger lawn we pay 1.5 times whatever the rate is (i.e. driver $4.75 x 1.5). We pay nothing for re-do's. As far as being "on the clock" it makes little difference since all our employees make far beyond state minimums.

stizostedion_vitreum

10-19-2004, 04:52 PM

We pay our driver/supervisor'(s) 22-27% and our employees 15-20% depending upon experience/qualifications. We also pay $25 per annual contract they refer or sign up. Supervisor's avg. $12.50/hr. and drivers avg. $9.00/hr. - The best ones avg. $1 more per hour.